A Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) generally refers to an operator providing its users with a mobile service through a network of another Mobile Network Operator (MNO). The MVNO relates to a network operating mode proposed based upon network sharing, and the MVNO is introduced so that a number of operators can invest together in deploying a shared network, or lease a network of another operator for a lower risk of investment, rapid deployment and operating of the network, and other advantages.
A mobile communication resale service is a general form in which the MVNO is applied in the industry. It refers to a mobile communication service in which a mobile communication service is purchased from an underlying telecommunication service provider possessing a mobile network (i.e., the MNO), and packed into its own band and sold to end users. A mobile communication resale enterprise (i.e., the MVNO) typically does not deploy its own radio network, core network, transmission network, and other mobile communication network infrastructures, but has to deploy a client service system, and also possesses its own business support system and service platform. Since the respective MVNOs develop their respective groups of users, there may be a potential user competitive relationship between the MVNOs and between the MVNOs and the MNO, so in order to guarantee the security of the MVNOs in operation, that is, user information of the MVNOs must not be exposed to the outside, the MVNOs typically deploy their own Home Subscriber Server (HSS) device. Moreover, since the MVNOs need to define their own policy and charging rules, the MVNOs generally also possess Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) devices separately.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, network resources provided by the MNO include an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW), a Charging Gateway (CG), and other devices. The network resources of the MNO are shared by a number of MVNOI (1<=I<=N). Each of the MVNOs possesses its own Business and Operation Support System (BOSS), Application Function (AF), HSS, PCRF, and other devices, and provides a service using the network resources granted by the MNO. The MVNOs develop their groups of users separately, where the group of users for the MVNO1 is UE1k (1<=k<=K), the group of users for the MVNO2 is UE21 (1<=1<=L), etc.
The MVNOs need to lease the network resources of the MNO by purchasing network capacities and software functions from the MNO according to the scales of their own developed groups of users, types of services to be deployed by themselves, their own capital investment budgets, and other real conditions. The different MVNOs typically purchase different network capacities, and their desirable optional software functions may also be different from each other. As the provider of the network resources, on one hand, the MNO needs to grant the network capacities of the MVNOs by limiting accesses of MVNOs to the network resources, e.g., the numbers of user equipments allowed for an access, the number of Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearers allowed to be set up, etc.; and on the other hand, the MNO further needs to control software licenses to the MVNOs according to the software functions purchased by the MVNOs. The network capacities accessible to the MVNOs and the software functions licensed to the MVNOs are controlled by the MME. For example, the network resources of the MNO are shared by three MVNOs. For the MVNO1, the MME allows 100 millions of user equipments for an access, and 150 millions of EPS bearers to be set up, and enables the two optional software functions of Network Assisted Cell Change (NACC) and Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) in addition to general software functions; for the MVNO2, the MME allows 100 thousand of user equipments for an access, and 200 thousand of EPS bearers to be set up, and disables any optional software functions except the general software functions; and for the MVNO3, the MME allows 500 thousand of user equipments for an access, and 800 thousand of EPS bearers to be set up, and enables only the optional software function of Idle mode Signaling Reduction (ISR) in addition the general software functions.
In summary, in the prior art, the network capacities of the MVNOs are controlled without controlling data traffic allowed for the MVNOs generally for the following reasons:
(1) The MME device is a control plane device incapable of controlling the data traffic;
(2) The business plane of the P-GW/S-GW device is typically enabled using a pool of resources so that UE data of the MVNOs are not centrally processed, and it may be difficult to control the traffic of some MVNO; and
(3) The user information of the MVNOs are transparent to the MNO, and the MNO does not know user subscription information (e.g., subscriber levels) in some MVNO, so even if the traffic of the MVNO can be controlled, then only a subscriber can be selected randomly from the MVNO and treated without differentiating the subscriber from the other subscribers.
There is some specific handling capacity of the MNO, so if the data traffic of the MVNOs is not controlled, then if the traffic used by one of the MVNOs exceeds the traffic purchased by the MVNO, then the service for the other MVNOs will be inevitably affected.
Although the traffic of the MVNOs can be controlled by limiting the numbers of physical ports accessible to the MVNO in network deployment, this may be controlled at a large granularity and low precision without treating an MVNO subscriber differentially from the other MVNO subscribers.